Well watching the NBA lottery in 1997, 2007, and 2014 sucked when the Celtics missed out on Duncan, Durant, and Wiggins respectively, but at least we ended up with the #3 and #5 picks in '97, and the #6 pick in '07 and '14. This year there is no lottery pick to look forward to in June for the Celtics. Sucks that the NBA rules favor a team like the Lakers who hire a horrendous coach and tank over a team like the Celtics that got the most out of their limited talent.

Danny Ainge had a chance at the deadline to secure a lottery pick, but instead decided to make a playoff push. Ainge could have kept the Cavs 1st rounder and passed on Isaiah Thomas. He could have also traded Avery Bradley for a another 1st and bought out Brandon Bass. Give those guard minutes to James Young, shut down Sully for the year, and the C's likely would have had another top 5 pick. While Thomas and Bradley are both solid role players, I would have preferred the picks. MUCH easier to find role players after drafting stars than to find stars to join your role players.

Time will tell if the Celtics would have been better off with a lottery pick & additional 1sts or IT & AB

For the Wolves they have done a tremendous job rebuilding. They cashed in on Love by getting Wiggins and adding Towns or Okafor will be huge. Lavine was a solid pick last year and so was Dieng the year prior (another guy who would have been a better pick for the C's than Olynyk). Adding Towns would make Minnesota the new Lob City, though Okafor is the safer pick. Would love for the Wolves to make a huge leap and make the 8th seed of the playoffs next season, as the Celtics would then get that pick. More likely, they will improve some, but not enough to make the playoffs, so the end result is we will get 2nd rounders (and worse ones at that).

The Lakers risked losing their pick if it fell out of the top 5, so they would have gladly settled for the 4th or 5th pick. The #2 pick was another stroke of good luck for their franchise. Ironically for the 2nd year in a row a team moving up in the lottery might steer Kevin Love to that team. The Lakers now have assets in the #2 pick and Randle to trade to complement Love and whomever they want to use the rest of their cap space on. A trade for DeMarcus Cousins is very doable with the #2 pick in tow.

Love & Cousins on the Lakers would make me sick

Philly should be able to add a solid guard to go with their two stud young big men in Noel and Embiid. They will suck again this season and add another top pick next year (they also get the Lakers pick next year) and Dario Saric should be joining them in a year's time. So if you're keeping score at home that will be 3 years of tanking to get 6 top draft picks. They could either become the poster boys for successful tanking or Hinkie will get fired. Because there is no way you can have so many top picks and not become very good, unless you are repeatedly blowing your high picks.

The NBA, where playing like crap gets rewarded

The NBA rewards continued ineptitude. You keep on getting more shots at the best young prospects as long as you keep losing. The Kings got DeMarcus Cousins because they sucked and every year they get another lottery pick, because they keep blowing their picks. The Cavs aren't a top team because of good management. They are a top team because they got #1 picks in LeBron, Irving and the two they traded for Love. Even Love's back-up, Tristan Thompson, was a top 4 pick.

The 76ers, Knicks, and Lakers all blatantly tanked this year. They all got rewarded. The Celtics didn't tank and their reward was a playoff sweep and no lottery pick. While the Celtics have a nice collection of low 1st rounders, all of them combined don't equal one top 3 pick. Curious to see what Danny does this summer. To me trading for Thomas, holding onto Bradley, and making a playoff push seemed like a step back.

p.s. The one positive from today's lottery was seeing the Knicks bounce back two spots. They'll still get a stud at #4, but still happy to see their fans and Phil Jackson temporarily disappointed when they lost out on Towns/Okafor.